The jewel in the Esk Valley crown, made from one of this country's most distinctive plots of land at Bayview, north of Napier, at the original Esk Valley Winery.

The Terraces has long been associated with excellence and the best wines from Esk Valley Estate's iconic sun drenched hillside terrace vineyard - the first place that Malbec was ever grown in New Zealand.

The philosophy behind this wine is to express the single vineyard Since its inaugural 1991 vintage, only 13 vintages have been produced and, for the first time in its history, this is the winery's third consecutive vintage. Which is testament to winemaker Gordon Russell's quest to make the best and to the winery's ongoing conversion to organic production. 

The wine is a blend of Malbec, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. All grapes were dry farmed, hand harvested and co fermented in one concrete fermenter with wild yeasts. The wine was bottled without fining or filtration. 

This wine represents the pinnacle of Esk Valley wines and is considered the jewel in the winery's crown. It is a keeper for the wine cellar and also makes a special gift. 

Mate’s Vineyard Chardonnay was the first single vineyard Chardonnay producing by Kumeu River Wines and named in homage to the late Mate Brajkovich, whose four children run the winery today.

The grapes are grown solely on a single vineyard, sloping hillside site opposite the winery in Kumeu, West Auckland. 

The 2019 vintage produced exceptional quality grapes for Kumeu River Wines and this wine is made from the last grapes to be picked each year. High ripeness combined with the variable berry size on Mendoza clone Chardonnay bunches provides a wine with great concentration of flavour, great acidity (thanks to the small berries) and richness from barrel fermentation. This wine drinks well now and will age superbly for at least a decade, and then some, for those with will power. 

Kumeu River Wines began life as San Marino Wines in 1944 when Croatian immigrant couple, Mick and Katé Brajkovich, bought a small property with a vineyard on it. Their descendents now own and run Kumeu River Wines, which produces 250,000 bottles of wine annually from its owns 30 hectares of vineyards in Kumeu and from another 10 hectares, owned by local grape growers. 

This special library release is a one off which we have been lucky enough to secure a small amount of while featuring Palliser Estate as our winery of the month. This is the greatest dry aromatic white of the Palliser stable. It's fleshy, flavoursome and beautifully peachy buoyed up by the balance of great lime zest and a lingering citrusy finish. 

Dry Riesling is Palliser Estate's unsung hero white wine and this seven year old dry version is a stellar example. 

It's ripe and fleshy with beautiful balance provided by the citrusy acidity which adds length to this lovely wine. 

The grapes are grown on the organically certified Om Santi Vineyard and the Palliser Estate Vineyard.

Château Rieussec’s Carmes de Rieussec is a Semillon dominant sweet wine from the Sauternais region of Graves, Bordeaux. The nose is jammy and complex with charming  marmalade notes. The palate is powerful and balanced, with great acidity complimenting notes of pineapple, honey and delicate spice. An excellent desert wine.

100% ovum, first use. Skeetfield fruit, unfined and unfiltered. Beautiful nose with subtly mealy citrus fruit. The palate has beautiful texture and finesse. There’s a bright, lively citrus core with fine-grained structure. Such precision and detail with some spicy, mealy richness. There’s amazing intensity and balance here. There are layers of flavour, with lemons, saline notes, and some grapefruit notes. This is profound. Tony Bish says egg Chardonnays don’t need to age as long before release, and may not live as long as barrique aged ones, but can deliver profundity.

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Church Road 1 is a range of single vineyard wines that showcase the terroir of our best vineyards. The Gimblett Gravels Winegrowing District consistently makes our most characterful red wines, with its warm, stony soils producing low yield crops of intensely flavoured fruit with a full-bodied, rich yet vibrant flavour. Sheltered from sea breezes and brisk southerly winds, this is one of the warmest subregions in Hawke’s Bay, making it ideally suited to producing bold red wines. This vineyard produces dense, characterful Malbec with a core of dark fruit and a fine-grained tannin structure that brings length and drive to the palate.

AROMAS
A robust and characterful Malbec with generous, juicy, dark berry fruit and lifted violet floral notes complemented by subtle oak that imparts notes of cedar, cacao and warm spice.
BODY
The palate is full-bodied with exceptional mid-palate richness. This opulence is balanced with voluminous, fine-grained tannins that bring definition and length to the wine.